


i’m in the second-hand smoke (still just drinking canned coke) [rewriting]

by far2late



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Ben Hargreeves, BAMF Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves Deserves Better, Drug Addiction, F/M, Fluff, Homeless Klaus Hargreeves, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Parent Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Sober Klaus Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:13:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24675925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/far2late/pseuds/far2late
Summary: “Klaus, despite popular belief, doesn’t leave the Umbrella Academy with no reason behind his actions. He can be labelled many things, but if anything, he’s not stupid. He knows exactly how life out of the Academy will play out for a building drug addict who can see ghosts indefinitely. The only upside of his powers is being able to see Ben, really, but his siblings haven’t believed him about that for a long time, so there’s really nothing that keeps him tied to them anymore.“orklaus hargreeves, single father extraordinaire (ft. ben hargreeves, uncle extraordinaire)
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Original Male Character(s), Klaus Hargreeves & Original Male Character(s), Klaus Hargreeves/Original Character(s), Klaus Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 73
Kudos: 426





	1. prologue

When Klaus is sixteen years old, he meets a lovely girl who goes by Izzy and nothing else that she intends to share with him anytime soon. They met at a bar, as one would, and he took Izzy back for a night after a couple of drinks that neither of them could handle at their ripe teenage years. 

The next morning, Klaus is pretty sure he’s gay. He tells Izzy as much, not unkindly, and for her own points, she took it like a champ. 

Klaus, despite popular belief, doesn’t leave the Umbrella Academy with no reason behind his actions. He can be labelled many things, but if anything, he’s not stupid. He knows exactly how life out of the Academy will play out for a building drug addict who can see ghosts indefinitely. The only upside of his powers is being able to see Ben, really, but his siblings haven’t believed him about that for a long time, so there’s really nothing that keeps him tied to them anymore. 

No, Klaus leaves the Umbrella Academy for a very different reason. 

It was easy enough to forget about that night with Izzy, it was inconsequential in the mix of all the drugs and booze he had prided himself on finding as an antidote to his ghost problem. Ben is still there, of course, a moral compass he refuses to listen to at any point in time. Now and then he’s more like a machine for fun facts that’s he hears walking down the streets and repeats for any semblance to grasp at a regular life. 

Klaus stayed busy enough to forget things that he doesn’t want to dwell on, or things that he just forgot in general. Izzy was one of those things, just a blip on the radar of a very messy introduction to drugs. 

Well, he thought it was just a blip until she turned up to one of his frequent drug spots nearly a year later with a bundle in her arms, held carefully. Klaus didn’t pay it much mind, brushing it off as something that he didn’t need to worry about, maybe a package or a pet of some sort. He didn’t concern himself with that all that much, simply seeing a familiar face and recognition sprouting in his brain. 

  
She ushered him over from where he stood, standing at the mouth of an alley with a strange expression on her face. Ben hesitated next to him, voice low as he spoke. 

“I’m not so sure about this, Klaus...” Klaus waved off the ghost’s worries, already walking over. 

“It’ll be fine,” He dismissed, taking large steps as he made his way over.“Just am old friend, y’know?” Ben frowned disapprovingly but said nothing as he watched Klaus continued onwards, on his own warpath as usual. 

“Izzy! Haven’t seen you in a while,” Klaus greeted, an easy-going smile plastered to his face as he sauntered up to her, hands tucked in a jacket he had swiped from Luther before he had left the house. It sat loosely on his shoulders and insulated him from the incredibly biting winds of winter that would’ve frozen him through and through. 

“No time for pleasantries,” Izzy dismissed, shaking her black hair from out of her eyes, a strand stuck against her nose. Ben was off to the side, watching the exchange with wary eyes, though he said nothing. Klaus supposed he didn’t want either to stay out too long in the cold for longer than they had to, his protective instincts shining through. 

“Is this a drug sort-of meeting, then?” Klaus questioned, gaining a humourless laugh from the teenaged girl across him. 

“No, actually. Been clean about a year.” His eyebrows raised up in surprise at the words, almost disbelieving. 

“And what, pray tell, gave you the motivation?” Izzy shuffled nervously, eyes locking on her feet as she held out the bundle to him, practically pushing it into his chest. Klaus gently lifted it from her hands to pull back the blanket and come face-to-face with- 

A  _ baby.  _

“Holy shit,” Klaus breathed, eyes flitting over the face with large green eyes as the small chubby thing squirmed from the exposure to the cold, immediately covering his blushing face with the blanket again. 

“Is- What is this? Who’s?” Izzy shrugged helplessly at his frantic questions, looking about as confused as he was at the moment. 

“Who do you think?” She questioned softly, making Klaus and Ben both freeze up. The ghost had moved away from his vigil leaning against the bricks, moving to stand next to Klaus as he examined the bundle in his arms as though it was something he’d never seen before. 

The pieces were slowly starting to click into Klaus’ brain, even with what semblance that he had with drugs meddling his brain and mixing it up. The one-night stand, the meeting, and… 

“And you’re- You’re what? Giving it to me?” Izzy shrugged again, tears starting to fill her eyes. 

“My parents wouldn’t let me keep him. Kept threatening to kick me out, and I know how bad the foster care system is… Your family is well-off, right? You can take care of him for me?” Her voice shook as she finished off her question, wiping at her face as she took a shuddering breath. 

“I-” Klaus cut himself off, biting his lip as he pulled the blanket back on the boy again, examining his face closely as Ben did the same. He looked like any other baby, skin a little darker in a way that mimicked his mother’s complexion. His cheeks were a delicate shade of red and there was a little tuft of black hair sitting on top of his head. To think that  _ he  _ had contributed to making this- having a  _ child,  _ was too much for his mind to decipher in a whirl of sentimentality and oh my God he had a  _ son-  _

_ - _ And a chance to make things right, maybe? He knew his own childhood wasn’t the best place for him to base parenting off of, but this could be something to start making things right. Get over his addiction for the precious piece of mushy angelic chubby cheeks sitting in his arms. He could do something useful with his life, prove his father wrong… 

“...Yeah. Yeah, I’ll take care of him. He’ll be safe with me.” The answer slipped from Klaus’ lips without thinking and he couldn’t bring himself to take it back once he did, despite protests coming from Ben. Izzy immediately relaxed, as a result, muttering a quiet  _ thank God,  _ before pulling him in for a hug, careful of the baby between them. 

“ _ Klaus _ ,” Ben hissed from next to him, the aforementioned ignoring his protests once more as he held the boy to his chest as carefully as he could. Treating him more like a priceless vase than a baby, though it’d be less accurate to compare the two considering Klaus couldn’t give less of a shit about a stupid vase. 

“Leo,” She said quietly as they pulled apart, Klaus giving her a strange look. “Leo’s his name. If- If that’s okay with you?” 

He nodded at the question, eyes locked on the small, sleeping baby in his arms with a softness that hadn’t been present since Five’s disappearance. “I’ll take care of Leo,” Klaus promised in a murmur, not paying any mind to Izzy as she snuck off, sniffling fading from ear-shot as Klaus bounced the baby in his arms carefully. 

“Klaus,” Ben’s voice came again, this time sounding disappointed in him. Klaus looked up at him, eyes half-lidded as he gazed at the ghost across the alley from him. We both know you can’t take care of him.”

“I can. I can take care of him and I can- I’ll be good. I can,” Klaus insisted, cradling the baby closer to him and pressing him against his shoulder. 

“Klaus, you think you can, but how are you going to? Really? No funds, no home, no one to call for help if you want to stay away from the Academy.” Ben’s logic was slowly getting to him, despite his attempts to keep an open-mind on this. 

“I… I have to. I have to,” Klaus repeated, eyes fixated on the small bundle cradled to his chest. Ben sighed again, and Klaus graced himself for the disproving words that would come after. 

“We.” Klaus looked up, confused. 

“We,” Ben repeated, eyes fixated on the baby. “ _ We  _ have to try.”


	2. chapter one

_ Homelessness and babies,  _ Klaus thought decisively,  _ do not mix very well at all.  _

When faced with the challenge of being responsible for another human life, Klaus found it a lot harder than previously expected, though such could be expected from being a single homeless father for the hell of it. Ben was helpful, of course, always searching for new job opportunities and trying to catch them before anyone else had the chance to apply for the job. 

For all his efforts, Ben lands Klaus a job at a diner a while away from the Academy, leaving him comfortable enough to walk outside with the tiny piece of squish he claimed as his own. 

Leo was a fairly easy baby to take care of. Didn’t cry too much or too little, never had tantrums when it was an incredibly bad time to do so. He was just… quiet. Ben joked now and then that he was the exact opposite of his father, who, naturally, responded to this as loudly as a man cradling a baby could. 

But no, homelessness and babies did not mix well. Such was the truth when it came to trying to find somewhere to live with Leo in mind. Of course, alleyways were off-limits now, despite how useful they had been beforehand. The risk of infection was too high, Ben would constantly tell Klaus. It was like he had a sixth sense for these types of things, always stopping him from giving in to his urges. 

One of those urges was definitely drugs, and that was much harder to sway him on than alleyways, despite the very small life he was now responsible for. Old habits die hard, Klaus supposed, but it didn’t really apply when the habit would have killed the baby he  _ promised  _ that he’d keep safe. 

Honestly, that was probably one of his first mistakes, Klaus thought angrily, trudging through the snow to the nearest motel. Trying to take care of a baby when he was a homeless drug addict. Couldn’t even get through a little snowstorm to keep the 6-month old he had safe. Three months after he got the baby and he  _ still  _ couldn’t keep a job long enough to get a place to stay permanently. 

Ben walked alongside him, clearly anxious and jittery as he stood as close as he could to Klaus without passing through him. The snowfall was clearly starting to affect his travels, despite the streetlights lighting up the streets and the red motel lights grainy in the distance. 

Everything just seemed far, really. Izzy seemed far, Ben seemed far, overcoming the drug addiction seemed  _ far,  _ it was just… far. Really far. 

Klaus stumbled to a stop, panting a little as he held the baby to his chest closely with one hand on his knee, bent over to catch his breath. Ben stood by him, worried and wringing his hands as he spoke. The words seemed fast but Klaus didn’t bother registering them in his mind. He knew where he needed to go, and the one-track mind he had for meth could change directions and take him to that stupid motel. 

With this new stream of motivation, Klaus stood up straight, making his way through the snow rapidly. It was stupid, really, how fast all the snow just built up. It was barely December, there should’ve been at least a couple weeks notice before this glorified blizzard. It wasn’t like where they lived was anything particularly prone to bad weather. Just a stroke of bad luck, really. 

Bad  _ luck.  _ Wasn’t that stupid? Bad luck brought those dealers to the alley he had hidden from Reginald from so long ago, and here he was now. Trudging through a snowstorm with a baby that he honestly couldn’t handle dying. He didn’t want that on his conscious, and Leo was a cute baby, really. 

Klaus shuddered a little at the blast of cold air that gusted into his face with a vengeance, finally reaching the street the motel was on. Ben was still making noise next to him, and Klaus really was just tempted to ignore him before his semblance of a sober mind chided him with the reminder that he was the only person who  _ couldn’t  _ ignore him. 

“-And really, I’m sure Leo will be fine, I’m sure  _ you’ll  _ be fine, you just need to get to the motel, y’know? You’ll be fine! I won’t- I don’t really need to  _ do  _ anything, I can make sure you’re okay and warn you and stuff. Guess I’m the lookout this time, huh? Was jealous of you now and then.” Ben sounded as though he had been rambling for a while, and Klaus’ heart clenched a little at the mention of his place in missions. 

“‘Course you’d be jealous of me. I’m unbearably s-s-sexy,” Klaus replied, teeth chattering slightly as he finally entered the motel, a sigh of relief leaving his lips. 

“Why’d I be jealous of your ugly mug?” Ben joked, tension leaving his jittery form soon after Klaus entered the motel. That seemed to be one problem out of the way. 

“Not ugly enough not to get laid,” Klaus bantered under his breath before making his way up to the front, checking in and getting himself a room for the weekend. It took a third of his money, and the other third was going to essentials, but he would make do. 

Klaus entered the room, flicking open the lights to greet a grey, dismal wallpaper and a sadder, much stiffer-looking bed. The floor was carpeted in dark green with a tacky gold and red pattern, but at least it was soft. Not that Leo would get anywhere near the floor, not on Klaus’ watch. Or Ben’s, when he fell asleep. 

“At least it’s not knee-deep in snow?” Ben offered, taking a seat on the bed and tipping his head to the side slightly, taking in the sight of a painting across him and peering over to look into the bathroom before scrunching up his nose slightly. “God, I’m so glad I can’t smell.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, ghostie,” Klaus rolled his eyes, moving to set Leo down on the bed carefully, unwrapping him from his bundle to leave the toddler sitting up on the bed, looking up at him with bright eyes and red cheeks. Klaus pinched them before moving to unpack his bag next to the toddler, pulling out the small supply of diapers he had stolen and a teddy bear that was ratty at best, but seemed very important to Leo, if not proved by the way he rolled over to grab it as soon as it was in eyesight. 

“Did you know,” Ben started, standing up to saunter around Klaus and crouch down in front of Leo as he played with his doll, examining his face. “That if a baby still has blue eyes after six months, that’s what colour its eyes will be?”

Klaus paused in his unpacking before continuing, taking out a change of clothes for the baby before grinning, picking Leo up and spinning around the room slowly, both giggling quietly. 

“Hear your Uncle Ben? You’re gonna have the prettiest blue eyes. Gonna use them to get anything you want from me, huh? That’s what I would do,” Klaus hummed, bouncing the baby in his arms as Ben watched on, amused by the paternal instincts coming from the (former?) drug addict. 

“Little traitor. Taking after your mother instead of me. You’d look very nice with green eyes,” Klaus conversed as he dipped the baby during his dramatic dance and glorified serenade to the six-month-old. Leo simply looked up at him with huge (blue) eyes and gurgled, one hand almost shoved in his mouth. Klaus rolled his eyes fondly before straightening up, going to the bathroom after snatching clothes and a diaper. 

“Time to change, huh, Leo? Get you all ready for bed!” Klaus practically cooed, changing the baby on the counter before patting himself on the back and miming a high-five to Ben, who returned the movement in sync from where he laid on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Klaus brought Leo back outside again, smiling at Ben as he laid on the floor. 

Klaus looked at Leo. “Say goodnight to your Uncle Ben.” Leo looked back at him and promptly burped paired with a gurgle before the hand was shoved in his mouth. 

“Goodnight to you, too, Lee,” Ben sighed. Klaus grinned. 

“That’s the spirit!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo i think the next nine or so chapters will be snapshots like this into klaus' life raising leo with plot mixed in. i sat down and wrote myself a good timeline to follow so that updates stay constant. thanks for reading! happy friday :-)


	3. chapter two

Klaus shuddered from where he knelt next to the toilet, slumped over on his knees as he wiped vomit off his lips with the back of his hands before rubbing it off on the bath rug in front of the shower. The one light in the bathroom was flickering every now and then but looked to be staying strong, for the most part. They definitely needed to change that lightbulb, just as soon as Klaus could move an inch without wanting to throw himself out of a window.

It was wishful thinking, really. That he’d be able to get away with not being sick for almost three years, wishful thinking indeed. He held out long enough, crushing any headaches with Tylenol that he was determined not to look at or think about for any other reason, and keeping himself busy enough not to need a hip replacement. It was kind of funny, really, how Ben kept finding things that he didn’t really know was a problem. 

Maybe it was on him for leaving the TV on when he went for work, but he was happy to trade in Ben knowing a lot than Leo not being occupied and causing more trouble in their pint-sized home. Ever since the toddler had learned to walk and talk, it was a never-ending tirade of him finding himself dangerously close to where he very much shouldn’t be. 

Klaus groaned from where he sat, leaning up to flush the toilet and sliding back miserably on the bathtub. Ben watched on from inside the bathtub with a small frown, though he did his best to play off the concern as anything else than that. 

“You alright there, buddy?” Ben asked, peering over Klaus’ head as though he’d catch sight of his eyes. 

“I’ll get back to you when my liver’s in the toilet,” Klaus muttered, swiping a shaky hand through his hair before sitting up properly, resting for a moment before staggering to his feet and leaning over the sink. 

He was gaunt, to say the least. His skin was pale and white and made him feel uncomfortably like a dry-wall, and that paired with the slowly darkening skin under his eyes made him feel like he was less-than-well. To be fair, though, it wasn’t unlike how he usually looked on a good day. This was a good day for him, based on his looks. Any other day his eyes would be rimmed red. 

The absence of Klaus’ siblings was… slowly starting to hit. Despite the expertise he had gained in denial of all kinds, there was little he could do about missing the siblings he had spent his entire life with. No reservations like these were spared for Reginald, but Grace and his  _ real  _ family, or kind-of family, had a special place in his heart. It was carved out by late-nights sneaking out, story-telling, training, and just living together really. 

Klaus didn’t think he’d ever become anywhere close to a father when he had first grown up with his siblings. But God, he really wanted his son to know his uncles and aunts now. He wanted them to know them as Uncle Diego and Aunt Vanya, rather than  _ the-man-that-makes-dad-sad-when-he-remembers-them  _ and  _ the-lady-who-plays-violin _ . That was the last thing he wanted. 

With little to no contact with them, however, it was considerably harder to build the relationships necessary for these types of interactions. He couldn’t, for the life of him, track down their phone numbers, and the Academy was off-limits for him to search for them from. He doubted they would leave the contact information with Reginald, though, so he was cutting his losses. 

Ben hissed Klaus’ name from behind him and the man looked up, confused until he caught sight of the small boy standing in the doorway, one chubby hand hanging onto the doorway for dear life while the other arm was wrapped around a small plush that Klaus had bought him. 

Klaus washed his hands quickly, rinsing his mouth before turning back to the baby with a tiny grin, moving to sit cross-legged and lean against the bathroom cabinet as the three-year-old toddled over to him, bracing himself on the older man’s knees. 

“Hi Leo,” Klaus greeted, waving one hand at the baby. Leo responded by clambering into his lap, which Klaus watched him struggle to do with a fond look in his eyes before picking him up from under the armpits carefully. 

“You sick?” Leo questioned, voice tiny as he hugged the teddy to his chest as though it was Klaus. The man nodded once, lowering his head to press a kiss to Leo’s head of hair, patting his back. 

“I’ll be good soon. No worries,” He mumbled, arms encircled around the toddler. Leo frowned at that, tugging on Klaus’ shirt with an angry-looking face as he made noises. 

“Uncle Ben! Come help!” He called, gesturing at the figure in the bathtub to come and look at- 

_ Gesturing to the figure in the bathtub? _

Klaus looked at Ben with wide eyes, frozen. Ben returned the look, and Leo shook the front of Klaus’ shirt with a tiny fist once more. 

“Uncle  _ Ben _ !” He insisted, tugging on Klaus’ shirt. The older man snapped out of his stupor, nodding slowly to the angry toddler in his lap. 

“Where’s Uncle Ben?” Klaus questioned, keeping an eye on Ben as he shifted in the bathtub, clearly confused. 

Klaus, with his newfound sobriety, had long since found out how to keep Ben corporeal and stable as he did so. It was a struggle to work out, really, and it involved many games of patty-cake after the toddler had been put to bed, but eventually, they got it. Leo had spoken to his Uncle Ben now and then and a lot more when Klaus needed to go to work, but he wasn’t corporeal  _ now,  _ so how was Leo seeing the older man?

“Bathtub,” Leo answered simply, anger fading from the tiny toddler’s body and being replaced with tiredness. “Tired.”

“Tired,” Klaus echoed blankly. “Right, okay, tired. Let’s go… Let’s go to bed.”

The man picked up the toddler, making his way out of the bathroom and through the short hallway to his room, placing the baby down in the middle of the queen-sized mattress he had laid on the carpeted floor. The apartment came like that, but it was new enough that it didn’t smell bad and was a blessing for the small family of three. 

In the past three years, things had financially peaked for them, Klaus landing a well-paying job at a very large library that kept him busy for a full-time shift. They had made a routine out of it, really, taking Leo with him on weekends to read in the children's section with Ben as they did their absolute best to teach him  _ how  _ to read. On his breaks, he would come over to check on the two, and once finding them okay, return to his shift. 

It was nice, incredibly so. They even got take-out on the way back sometimes, though that was more for Klaus than Leo or Ben. It was a good thing they had going, and the new apartment was the cherry on top. Not anything glamorous by their standards, but nice enough that they felt the need to appreciate what they had. Klaus hadn’t seen himself anywhere near this type of life, but with him cutting off the drug usage only three months after he began, it was much easier to recover. 

Once Leo had settled in, tucked up to his chin in blankets with his arms around a teddy bear, Klaus slowly exited the room after closing the lights and shut the door behind him, closing it with a quiet sigh. 

And prompted to quietly shout  _ holy shit  _ to the open hallway, Ben across him in a similar fashion. 

“He can  _ see  _ you?” Klaus asked, moving forward immediately as he materialized Ben, the ghost gesturing wildly as he did so. 

“Yes?! I don’t know! Were you conjuring me in the bathroom or something? Did you tell him I was there?”

“No, you were there with me the whole time, how would I have told him?” Klaus asked, pacing a little as he ran his hands through his hair one-by-one, rubbing his face slowly as he spun in a slow circle in the living room. Ben paced in front of him for a moment before stopping. 

“Do you think he’d inherit your powers? ‘Cause of like… he’s your son, right? He might’ve inherited them,” Ben brought up, wetting his lips as he glared out the window with a pinched face. 

“No, he can’t have  _ my  _ power. He would’ve said something about the screaming lady in our room. She's not a very nice roommate,” Klaus muttered, sinking back onto the sofa, Ben following to sit down next to him. 

“I don’t really see any other explanation,” Ben said softly, shrugging a bit. “Do you know any other powers that let you see the dead?” 

Klaus sighed, rubbing his face again. “Fuck.”

Ben snorted. “You can say that again,” He said, voice humourless.

  
“ _ Fuck, _ ” Klaus repeated, coming out as more of a groan. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here's the plot i promised! i will flesh this out, and the next couple chapters will be about the new development, but otherwise, expect more fluff and the angst i promised in the tags. the pacing seems a little fast to me, but if u see that as a problem and its not me being overly-critcial, please point it out to me. have a good day! and thanks for reading <3


	4. chapter three

“So,” Ben asked, leaning back on the table as Klaus pointedly ignored him, eyes averted as he washed the dishes. “Are we going to  _ discuss  _ this new development? ‘Cause it’s not something we can really ignore.” 

Klaus hummed to himself noncommittally, scrubbing at a stubborn stain on one of the plates with a sponge as he took the time to think of his answer for Ben’s question. 

“Y’know what? I’d really rather not talk about this. He can see you! He can’t hear the loud screaming lady in our bedroom. Works out great, doesn’t it?” Klaus questioned, dropping the dish unceremoniously in the other sink, filled to the brim with soapy water and dishes he had previously cleaned till they were shiny and white once more. 

Honestly, the new development with Leo was something he very much did  _ not  _ want to talk about that much anymore, not at all. The thought that they could pass their powers on through their own kids was frankly terrifying, both in the thought of what  _ Reginald  _ would do if he ever became aware of the fact, along with the fear that he would steal Leo away from him to subject him to the same hell that Klaus had to suffer through for the majority of his years at the Academy. There was little that was pleasant about his stay there, and the worst parts had to do with the very same powers he seemed to have cursed his son with, so,  _ no,  _ he didn’t want to discuss this with Ben when he could very much stay holed up in his own mind. 

“We really should talk about this,” Ben insisted, hovering behind Klaus as he turned the knob for the water more in an attempt to drown out Ben’s voice. “If we can pass our powers down onto our kids, there is really a lot we should be talking about past the fact that Leo  _ specifically  _ has them.” 

Klaus huffed, frustrated as he shut off the water, beginning to rinse and dry the plates he had with a vigor, working himself up to a rant. 

“Well, it’s not like there’s much to say, really. We pass down our powers. Eventually, one of the other buffoons are going to slip up, or- or have their own kids and baam! Reggie finds out. And then we have our second generation Umbrella Academy where they go through everything  _ we  _ did. Or, we skip the pleasantries and we don’t speak about it so that if Reginald  _ does  _ find out, it’s going to be with minimal interference from us and I don’t have that on my conscious, capische?” Klaus finished his jumbled words by setting the dishes in the drying rack, stacking them up to let the water drip off. 

“That doesn’t make  _ sense! _ ” Ben insisted, voice growing more and more agitated. “We have to consider what this  _ means,  _ Klaus. The fact that he can see me but not our roommate? It’s weird, you have to admit. You can’t just pass it off as something you  _ don’t want to talk about,  _ because you’re going to have to start talking about it when pipsqueak starts acting why he and dad can see Uncle Ben but no one else can,” Ben snapped, arms crossed as Klaus turned back to him. 

“So you want me to look into this and have Reginald find out? Is that it?” Ben threw his arms up in the air, frustrated. 

“Of course not! That’s the last thing I want! I’m just  _ saying,  _ it won’t do you any good to keep this thing under wraps the way you’re suggesting we do.” 

“Well I’m sorry that I don’t want my son to get anywhere near Reginald’s radar.” Ben furrowed his eyebrows at the words with a frown. 

“I don’t want him to get hurt, either. I want him  _ safe,  _ and I don’t think we can do that if we don’t understand what these powers mean. What if he can make them corporeal the way you did the time you were-” Ben cut himself off, biting at his lip before continuing, shaking his head. “What I’m saying is that we need to know these things, for his sake as well.” 

Klaus let out a lengthy sigh, rubbing at his face before groaning, letting his head tip back to face the ceiling for a moment as he did. 

“Fine. Fine! We’ll do it your way. We can  _ research  _ and  _ ask questions  _ and all the fancy documentary stuff. Happy?” Ben brightened up at the words, a grin stretching across his face. 

“Incredibly so,” He chirped, moving to the living room alongside Klaus as the other man turned on the TV, settling down next to him with his feet kicked up on the table in front of him. “I’ve been dying for a new project since we gave up on kitchen renovations.” 

Klaus snorted, the tension melting off his shoulders. “Glad to see you leave Leo’s powers on the same level of inspection as the cupboards being replaced.” 

“Well, no, of course not,” Ben protested amicably, eyes locked onto the TV, “This is much more interesting, of course! I might have to travel a bit and look through a couple libraries. Maybe even sneak into the Academy for good measure.” 

“Absolutely not,” Klaus said immediately, leaving no room for arguments. Ben frowned. 

“But-”

“Absolutely  _ not _ ,” Klaus protested again, “I’m not having you anywhere near that house while I’m still alive, no-fucking-way.” Ben rolled his eyes at the words, but conceded. 

“Fine, but I get freedom everywhere else,” He said. Klaus shrugged. 

“Deal.” 

… 

Leo looked up at Klaus with big eyes, opened all the way as he sat at the dinner table, his plate of cut-up spaghetti left abandoned in front of him. Their dinner was made by Ben this time around, who stood vigil over a pot of boiling water waiting for the spaghetti to get itself just rubbery enough to slather tomato sauce on. It did pay off in the end, though, considering that Leo was eating it gladly, now only at his last couple of forkfuls, during which Klaus thought it’d be a great time to start this conversation. 

“So, can you go over what we said?” Klaus asked again, sitting on the side of the table adjacent to him, Ben sitting across him. Leo nodded at the words, picking at his food with a plastic fork. 

“No talkin’ ‘bout Uncle Ben in fronta other peoples and can’t act like he’s ova there in fronta otha peoples, either, ‘cause they can’t see him,” Leo repeated, treating himself to a forkful of spaghetti that added more to his face than it did to his stomach. Klaus brightened up, clapping his hands together. 

“Yes! Good job, baby,” Klaus cooed, Ben reaching over to ruffle the boy’s hair. 

“High five, buddy,” Ben prompted, raising a hand to him that Leo gladly returned and then began to eat his spaghetti again. Ben continued to pinch his cheeks, which Leo batted away with a giggle. 

“Uncle Ben, I’m  _ eatin’! _ ” Leo laughed, Klaus grinning at the words as he stood up to swing Leo up, hands under his armpits. Leo’s laughter echoed through the dining/kitchen area as Klaus danced around with Leo in his arms. 

“Can’t be eating  _ now,  _ we’re dancing!” Klaus exclaimed, putting Leo down on the ground carefully before waving Ben over, who took Leo’s hands as he stooped down a little to ballroom dance dramatically with the boy as Klaus watched on, clapping and cheering from the sidelines where he leaned against the dining table, eyes lit up with glee. 

Ben picked Leo up in a hug as the boy squealed, swinging him around the kitchen and eventually taking him to the living room, dropping him on the couch to relentlessly tickle his sides while Leo pushed at Ben’s large hands with a grin. 

“No more, no more!” He giggled, hands bracing themselves against Ben’s chest as the man sat up, Leo facing him in his lap. Ben tapped Leo’s nose lightly, patting his cheeks gently. He heard Klaus cleaning up in the kitchen quietly, stacking the plates and putting them in the sink with a small clank of china hitting metal before the tap was turned off and then on again afterwards. 

“Hi,” Ben greeted amicably, looking up out of the corner of his eyes as Klaus entered the living room, dinner abandoned. He turned on the TV once more, leaving a Charlie Brown movie playing in the background, looking to be a Halloween rerun playing in the early days of October. It was homely, really. 

“You think we can go trick-or-treating?” Ben asked softly, conversing with Leo, though Klaus knew the words were directed to draw his attention. Klaus nodded minutely, and Ben brightened up as Leo whispered conspiratorially with him. 

“So, we’ll dress you up as a ghost, yeah?” Ben asked quietly, watching Leo nod and giggle. “And then we’ll scare the  _ pants  _ off of Dad, right?” Leo nodded along, laughing quietly as Ben bent forward to rub his nose against Leo’s. 

“Conspiring without me?” Klaus questioned from next to them, leaning over to rest his head on Ben’s shoulder, shooting the man a mock-angry look. Leo shook his head, eyes wide and innocent. 

“Nooo, we aren’t!” He insisted, shaking his head back and forth. Klaus raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh, really?” Leo nodded at the words, big eyes still glaring into him with a vengeance that could pierce his soul with their innocence. 

“I told you, y’know. That you’d use those big eyes against me,” Klaus accused, pointing at Leo’s face as Ben watched on with amusement, patting the toddler’s head from where he sat in his lap. 

“I told you so,” Klaus insisted, Ben chuckling quietly. 

“That you did, big man,” He said, amused. “That you did.” 

It was a blessing, really, the little thing they had built for themselves. It wasn’t really a picture-perfect family, but it was  _ his  _ family. And Klaus loved his family. They were… his. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so no insight on the leo thing so far, but we are getting there, slowly but surely. the timeline will jump around a bit but i really want to showcase the fluff part before delving into my own verse on the powers thing. thanks for reading in the meantime, tho! happy sunday :-)


	5. chapter four

Ben was elbow-deep in books and research and computer results and a lot of searching, and all he had found for his efforts was absolutely nothing. 

It had been at least a month since Klaus had allowed Ben to go wild on his research with Leo and his powers, and he had gotten nowhere. There was little to go off of besides the Academy’s own research, and tracking down the remaining thirty-six children that had been born in the same conditions they had was near impossible. The children had been spread all across the globe, and it would be much too tedious to just single out one country and look for their birth information. 

The frustration was beginning to get to him, making him slowly more and more obsessed with finding answers to this puzzle, and it was beginning to get to him as well. Ben was slowly spending less time corporeal with the pair, buried in stacks of books as he did his best to find out what he needed to know for Leo. 

It was all for Leo, really. It was for  _ him,  _ to make sure that  _ he  _ was safe and happy and okay with his powers that could apparently be passed down and holy  _ shit  _ Leo had powers, his nephew had powers and he didn’t know how to make sure he would be  _ safe- _

Ben took a deep, unneeded breath from where he sat in Klaus’ room, the corner overtaken by his own research papers and notes. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, taking a moment to relax the best he could, breaths shaking. 

Stress was slowly getting to the ghost. Everything was slow, really. Too slow for Ben, who had spent more than half his lifetime watching life go by within the blink of an eye. It wasn’t good enough for him that answers would only come eventually rather than now, and that had led him to dig through his small pile and pick up another, going through the table of contents before hearing a throat being cleared.

  
“You alright there?” Ben heard Klaus ask from the doorway, voice significantly distant, and he was ready to snap at him before looking upwards and taking notice of the toddler hanging around the man’s knees, looking concerned in his own, three-year-old way. 

  
Leo had taken to the adjustment about Ben very well, though there were a couple of moments where Leo had forgotten that he couldn’t tell Ben when he had noticed a bug that had looked pretty and almost began tugging at a sleeve that he couldn’t touch. Those were easily diverted by Ben either shaking his head or moving to stand right next to Klaus so it would look like the toddler was talking to his father rather than the air, but for the most part, Leo was doing… great. 

He was perfect, really. Leo was something that Ben didn’t want to fuck up by not knowing enough the same way he had fucked up with not knowing enough about the Horror and letting it consume him after a lifelong fight against the beast he had hosted in his stomach. 

Ben did not like to think about the Horror, not very much at all. However, with the talking of powers and such, he had to do his own research on anything to do with it, and that had led to him spiralling in newspapers about the Academy that he didn’t particularly want to remember all-that-fondly. 

For all of Ben’s research, however, he was forgetting one thing. 

He was so caught up in trying to keep Leo safe that he forgot to keep Leo  _ safe.  _ Ben nodded at the question, sighing a bit as he did before sitting up, nodding again. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m alright- I’m good. Just need to… Need a break,” Ben chuckled a bit at the end, rubbing at his eyes with hands that had to become corporeal against his own will, looking at them for a moment, a bit confused before Leo almost barrelled him over. Ben wrapped his arms around Leo’s waist, setting his chin on top of the toddler’s head with closed eyes, breathing in deeply. 

“I’m sorry I haven’t been… Been around,” Ben finished awkwardly, “That much.” Klaus shook his head a bit, tilting his head towards Leo to indicate that this was definitely a conversation for when the baby wasn’t in direct earshot. Ben nodded slightly, moving back to bouncing Leo in his lap. 

“How’ve you been, little man?” Ben asked softly, moving back to examine Leo properly for the first time in what felt like weeks. It was like a breath of fresh air to his lungs after a city full of smog and fire, and it was exactly what Ben had needed in the moment. 

“Been- been good!” Leo exclaimed, raising his arms up, “Found bugs.” Ben grinned at the words, expression softening as he did so. 

“What type of bugs, huh, squirt? Tell me all about it,” Ben prompted, letting the toddler ramble excitedly about all of his new ‘pets’ that had usually been left in the grass outside their apartment building to be in Leo’s ‘care’ as a result. Klaus locked eyes with Ben over Leo’s head and he was once again filled with a sense of unmatched apprehension. 

…

The apartment was quiet. Dark. The living room was lit up only by the kitchen’s lights, which had always been on, really. It was a miracle they hadn’t fused yet as a result, maybe because they had gotten a better-quality one, not from the dollar store this time around. 

Their home wasn’t very bad, not at all. It was cozy and the two-bedroom home was beginning to come together properly. The shelves were slowly beginning to fill with knick-knacks that  _ meant  _ something, and it was starting to become messy in the way that had made it feel less like a pigsty and more like a homely pigsty. 

Klaus was standing at the dining table, leaning against it with his arms crossed as Ben watched from where he sat on the sofa. He looked up at Klaus with an almost defiant air as he straightened up, clearing his throat while Ben shifted. 

“I know that you asked me not to butt in on all your research-” 

“Then I don’t see why you’re doing it,” Ben interrupted, sitting up straight on the couch as he raised his chin, not looking away from Klaus’ stubborn yet very caring gaze. 

“Ah, would you be so kind once more? I can feel the love radiating off of you,” Klaus said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he walked over to the couch, dropping down next to him as Ben remained stubbornly silent. 

“You gotta chill out with this stuff, man,” Klaus said softly, ignoring Ben’s sharpened gaze at the words, continuing onwards with his mini-speech. “I know you want to keep Leo safe, but he barely sees you without a mountain of books around you for almost a month now.” 

Ben grimaced a bit, shaking his head as he tilted it back to rest against the back of the couch. The ceiling was dark and he could see the cracks flitting through the material as he blinked back tears that would never fall. His eyes were burning slightly as he shook his head. 

“I need to keep him  _ safe _ ,” Ben said, stressing the last word as he took in a small breath. “If I don’t know what’s going on with his powers, they can hurt him. I can’t watch it… I can’t watch what happened to me happen to someone else.” 

Klaus was uncharacteristically silent at the admission. The joyful nature of his usual words and presence had slipped away and was replaced with a grim mood that was out of character for the both of them. 

“Saturday. Four AM,” Klaus spoke up after a few quiet minutes, Ben looking over to him. “It’s the only time that he isn’t in his office.” 

Ben tipped his head to the side, eyes holding confusion in them for a moment before he understood, opening his mouth to speak before being interrupted by Klaus speaking again. 

“I’m giving you half-an-hour to stay corporeal, and you need to bring a camera or something with you because I refuse to have anything of  _ his  _ in our home.” Ben’s heart warmed slightly at the words, and the way that Klaus had automatically said  _ our  _ home. 

Ben nodded at what Klaus had said, already knowing that what he was doing was a huge thing, simply considering it was surprising enough, but the fact that he was given  _ half-an-hour  _ was something else. 

“Thank you,” Ben said, tipping his head to Klaus as he did so. The other man nodded, shifting to rest his head on Ben’s shoulder gently with a soft thump of head hitting his shoulder. 

“Acting like I gave you the key to the city,” Klaus snickered softly, “Just gave you the chance to kind-of rob Reginald.” Ben snorted at the words, a smile tugging upon his lips. 

“Might as well be the same thing,” He grinned, eyes shutting slowly. Klaus shook his head in mock-disapproval, patting his side. 

“Everyone in this family has a penance for crime,” Klaus said teasingly. 

“Ironic, really,” Ben hummed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy to announce that i have worked out a plot that makes sense for this! expect a lot of exposition and characters u will not be expecting. im still very excited, just getting the rest out of the way before i start delving into what i have prepared for leo and this particular storyline. im not spoiling anything but ohmygod im so excitedddd :-DD


	6. chapter five

It is 3:45am on a Saturday, Leo put to bed and Ben tidied up the best that a ghost could be expected to be. Klaus had been dressed down in sweats and a t-shirt, as usual. The man had looked a little worse-for-wear lately, but Ben brushed that off to the stress of taking care of Leo mostly on his own while Ben obsessed over books and research on Leo’s condition.

Condition was one of the only things other than powers that Ben had bothered to call Leo’s ability to see Ben or the dead. It wasn’t like these powers were something positive, anyway, he hated the implication that they were something that made him stronger, or better in some way. The last thing that Ben wanted was to make light of this, it was the last  _ fucking  _ thing.

He did, however, regret that he had left Klaus to his own devices when it came to caring for Leo. 

Klaus was a good father, of course, but is suddenly left to take care of a toddler alone for a month after getting at least three years' worth of help was not the best when it came to a sudden change in routine. He felt guilty, of course, but the ends justified the means in his eyes. It would all be worth it when he could get to the bottom of what specific power that Leo had. 

It was why Ben was so determined to find something in Reginald’s writing that could help in his plight, maybe a way to find one of the other kids who he hadn’t managed to buy off the mothers but kept track of, anyway. He wouldn’t put it past Reginald to keep tabs on them throughout their lives, despite the way they tried to stay away from his all-seeing eyes. It always felt particularly like they were never free from Reginald, and they probably never were, either. It was just comforting to hold onto the illusion that they were untouchable, far from the Academy. 

They were a couple cities over from where the Academy was standing, far as they could without spending too much money on travelling. It was one of the only places they could get to fast, and after they had gotten Leo they had needed to move as fast as possible to get away from Reginald before he could ever notice. 

Ben swung his legs where he sat on the dining table, watching Klaus read on the sofa as the clock ticked quietly in the background, providing a steady beat to focus on as he waited for the time to finally reach 3:56am, to which he cleared his throat. Klaus looked up from his book, eyebrows raised before he looked up at the clock and recognition fell upon his face. 

“So, ready to go?” Klaus asked, clapping his hands together as he stood up from the couch, watching as Ben leapt to his feet, bouncing on his heels. Ben nodded, rubbing his hands together as Klaus wiggled his fingers. 

“Now, remember. We said half-an-hour. As soon as that clock hits 4:30am, I’m not making you corporeal and you’re gonna have to get back here.” Ben nodded once more, tipping his head slightly as he wore a grin upon his face. 

“Let’s go, ghost-boy.” Klaus scoffed good-naturedly, lifting his hands up as he prepared to send Ben off.

“Shut it, ghostie,” He sniped, “So, three, two, one, and… go!” 

On the word  _ go _ , Ben had dissipated himself and shown up in his bedroom in the Academy, Klaus’ powers working to remotely make him corporeal with little static from how far it was from their own home. He had practiced this ever since Klaus had given him the okay to go to the Academy in the first place. Ben was extremely glad that it had worked out alright after the testing of the method. 

His room looked… exactly as it did when he had left three years ago. It was a little unnerving, as though he was frozen in time, in the past. The record player he kept in his room was still there, along with the pieces of vinyl hung up on the walls. His old potted plants were overgrown and dying, the leaves looking as though they’d crinkle and fall to pieces the moment he would even breathe in their direction. There was a fine layer of dust over topmost of his belongings that looked to have been left there to build up for a long time. 

Ben stood where he was for a moment, allowing himself to reminisce before he left the room, completely silent as he did so. His footsteps were feather-light on the ground as he crept through the halls, making his way towards the study that Reginald forbade them from getting near under any circumstances. 

The shadows that stretched up the halls hid Ben from view well-enough, disguising him completely. Stealth was one of his strong suits, and one of the skills he had gained when he had ghosted Klaus- no pun intended- for a couple months before the addition of Leo to their little family. 

  
Ben turned a corner and made his way down the large hallway to the room at the very end. It was usually lit up, but it was completely dark this time around. Klaus was right in his deductions, apparently. Reginald really wasn’t up on Saturday’s at four am. 

He paused once in his walking as he heard a small noise, but after another minute, he resumed, walking faster as he did so. There was little time to waste in his search for information, and he couldn’t squander it in an attempt to save face for a mouse. 

Ben stopped at the door to Reginald’s office, slowly pushing the door open and stepping in as soon as it was cracked enough to slip through. The room was completely empty, and unlit as well. It was drenched in darkness and Ben was immediately comfortable in it. 

The room was the exact same as it had been before, which was looking to be a trend with the Academy. The desk was the same, the ornate decorations paired with the many trinkets that Reginald had collected were there as well. As much as Reginald gave off the impression of the perfect, proper businessman, he was still a messy man when it came to organizing his work. 

The papers that had been spread across his desk were a great start to Ben’s thorough search, though they quickly proved inconclusive as they were just bills that were in the process of being paid off. 

After the inconclusive data from the desk, he moved to open the drawers around the desk, looking for any books that could help at all. The camera that was hung around his neck was used to snap pictures of pages that seemed important, but none seemed to work that well in his favour. It was disappointing, but Ben didn’t give up his restless searching. He still had twenty minutes, after all. 

Sixteen minutes later with little to no results, Ben was starting to get frustrated, despite his struggle to contain the volume of his shuffling. Ben passed over a dark blue notebook without a second glance before turning back to it, eyes widening as he snatched it from where he left it, flipping through the pages as he tried his best to find any information. 

To his luck, it was a detailed summary of each of the children when he had first found them and bought them off. Once Ben made it past the many pages about the siblings he knew he had, it began to move into notes about people he hadn’t even known existed. 

With widening eyes, Ben took pictures of the pages that he could, keeping them as still as he could while he took the photos before tucking the notebook away, snatching a glance at the time before realizing he had less than a minute left to look at whatever else he needed to. Ben, however, was satisfied with his findings and counted down the seconds until he dissipated again, reappearing in Klaus’ living room with the camera around his neck and a wide grin. 

“I got the goods!” Ben exclaimed, waving Klaus over as he flipped through his camera roll, squinting at the words scribbled onto the paper he had taken snapshots of. Klaus moved to lean over his shoulder, frowning a bit as he read over the information that he had found on the papers. 

“Who the fuck,” Klaus started, “Is  _ Zahrun Contos _ ?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaa im updating so much today but i don't even care im so excited to get where i need to go with this story :-)) thanks for reading!! please leave ur thoughts down below <333


	7. chapter six

Klaus is many things, but he is not anything close to an optimist when it comes to things like this. 

There are many things that Klaus believes in, and he is one of the last people who would doubt something that he couldn’t see with his own eyes, but his father’s notes are something that would never lead him astray. Reginald was protective of his own notes and he was much too organized to write down something untrue about any of his prized subjects. 

The situation with  _ Zahrun Contos  _ was hardly anything to take lightly, not when he seemed to take up at least a whole notebook’s worth of notes on this mysterious man. There were a couple of notes on his whereabouts and what powers Reginald inferred he had, but most of what was written was simply inferences. It wasn’t something concrete to hold onto, not for Klaus. 

When things get Leo involved in them, Klaus usually takes whatever measure he needs to make sure that his son is safe first and foremost before even considering taking a job, or moving, or any major decision he may need to discuss with Ben. With something like this, however, there was little he could do to have these contingencies in place the way he needed them to be. 

Ben, of course, was all for going to go meet this man and see exactly what was going on with Leo, claiming this as their only chance. Klaus, under no uncertain terms, thought this was complete and utter bullshit. 

It’s what led to most of their arguments nowadays, ever since they had found the information from Reginald’s notebooks. It’s all they talked about, notebooks and information and  _ Zahrun fucking Contos,  _ and Leo’s safety. It was starting to grate on Klaus’ nerves, and it was what they were arguing about once more after about a week of knowing the name. 

“You can’t tell me you’re actually considering this!” Klaus exclaimed, running a hand through his hair frustratedly as he paced around the cramped living room. Ben stood by the opening of the hallway, voice low and incredulous as he argued. 

“You can’t tell me you  _ aren’t _ ?!” Ben asked, waving his hands questioningly. “This guy could have the answers to what we need to know, why else would Reginald keep such a close eye on him? I barely saw anything else about any of the others he couldn’t find in that stupid journal.” 

Klaus sighed, rubbing his face as he tugged at his hair. “We can’t just bring  _ Leo  _ near him without knowing he’s safe, I thought you were the one all committed to his safety?” 

“That’s why I think we should go!” Ben insisted, moving forward from where he stood with a frown. “This guy's powers, the ability to see into different realms and shit, we could _use_ this. Hell, he might even have answers about me and you.”

“Might.  _ Might  _ have answers,” Klaus stressed the word, shaking his head at what Ben had said almost immediately after he said it. “I already let you go to Reginald’s, we can’t risk this going wrong.”

“We can’t shy away from everything out of fear it might go wrong!” Ben said, frustrated as he ruffled his jacket and shook his head as though he was flicking away a fly. Klaus was beginning to get sick of going in circles with the ghost, fed up with his insistence to do what  _ he  _ needed to do and what they needed to do to keep Leo ‘safe.’ 

Ben was one of Klaus’ only friends and his closest. Their bond went beyond brothers most of the time, and they relied on each other with their eyes closed and hands tied behind their backs without a second thought. Klaus and Ben were not the type to argue with each other over anything, really, but since the research had started, it seemed to be all they would do. 

Klaus’ insistence to keep Leo safe versus Ben’s need to find out what was going on with Leo was something they just… couldn’t agree on, not properly. 

Klaus deflated at the words that left Ben’s mouth, slumping back to sit on the couch in the darkened living room, eyes shut as he waited for Ben to take a seat next to him. He seemed to have sensed the shift in the mood of the room and dropped whatever he was going to say. 

“What you’re doing isn’t going to keep Leo safe,” Klaus insisted, turning to look over at Ben with darkened eyes. Ben hummed, shaking his head. 

“Everything we do is a wild card just based on our lives. This is how we find out what Leo’s dealing with, and keep him safe from himself.” Ben said simply, arms crossed and leaving no room for argument. He noticed Klaus about to argue and spoke up before he could say anything. “We still don’t know why he can see me when you’re not conjuring me. We don’t  _ know. _ We don’t know if it’s because he can see ghosts, or because he has the Horror in him, too, or something like that, we just…  _ don’t. _ ” 

Klaus practically froze in spot at the mention of the beast that had lived in Ben, eyes widening as his face went slack at the words. He blinked once, trying to gather a sentence. “You think he… The Horror is letting you  _ see  _ him? Is that what you really think?” Ben shrugged, infuriatingly so. 

“We don’t know, that’s the thing. You know who might?” 

  
Klaus sighed. “Zahrun Contos.” Ben nodded, a sad smile on his face. 

“That’s right.” He sat up as he saw Klaus’ jaw tighten, frowning. “I know you don’t trust me when it comes to this, but I  _ need  _ you to. We need this. For Leo.” 

Klaus nodded slowly, expression still clearly disapproving. The thought of Leo having to be stuck with something like the Horror in his life the same way Ben had was  _ terrifying,  _ and just thinking about how Ben’s story came to the end was something that made Klaus want to throw up in his mouth. He didn’t think he could handle the grief he’d be faced with if he’d ever see Leo as a ghost the same way he’d seen Ben after he died. 

He didn’t want to think about it, not anymore. Klaus shook his head, clearing his head of thoughts. “For Leo.” He echoed, hollow. 

…

Road trips were usually much more fun when Klaus didn’t think he was driving them to certain doom. It’s why the ones at the Academy weren’t any fun at all, not with the missions they would end up tackling and coming home injured despite the mild fun they would have the first time around. Reginald used to drive them before Grace did, and when Grace did, they could do almost anything they wanted. 

This was one of the better ones, really. Not as mind-meltingly stressful, but the rental car was something he had to keep a record of, just in case. Klaus was pretty sure that’s something he would have to consider next to he had to figure out their monthly budget. He was sure Ben was going to help out, anyway. 

Leo was sitting in the back of the car in a car seat, bouncing in place as he looked out the windows with a stupidly-large grin. He was cheerful, three-year-old emotions considered in the equation. The excitement was cute, really, it almost made Klaus smile if it weren’t for the glaring issue of Ben sitting slumped over in the passenger seat. 

“So,” Klaus spoke up, eyes flitting to the rearview mirror before focusing on the empty road miles ahead of him. “What’s the plan here, exactly? Knock on Zahrun’s door and hope for the best?” Ben shrugged, 

“Yeah, something like that. We can explain when we get there.” Klaus sighed, shaking his head disapprovingly. 

“You’re so hopelessly optimistic,” Klaus sighed, gaining a half-hearted chuckle from Ben. 

  
“Better than expecting him to run us off with a G-U-N,” Ben spelled out, glancing back at Leo. The boy seemed unaware of the conversation, playing with his toy cars and rolling them over his arms and legs stretched out in front of him. 

“Here’s to hoping, ghostie,” Klaus snorted, shaking his head disapprovingly as he continued the long drive over. 

About an hour later, they had finally reached their destination. The previous six hours of driving had blended together into a blurry mess of pit stops and snacks and changing diapers and clothes and eventually, they made it out to a shitty, small-looking town in the middle of absolutely nowhere with a population of about one thousand people. 

It was certainly the place to go if someone was trying to drop off the grid, Klaus could admit. This Zahrun guy was smart if anything. 

He eventually pulled in front of the field the address had pointed him to, stopping in front with a small sigh. He looked over to Ben, who shrugged a little and got up to leave and go over to Klaus’ side of the car, waiting for him to leave the car. Klaus looked up at him, shaking his head again before leaving the car and looking back to Leo, sleeping in the back of his car. 

Klaus shook his head again, looking over to Leo again before getting up to stand next to Ben, sighing quietly. 

“Alright then! Let’s go.” Ben nodded at the words, waiting for Klaus to conjure him before making his way over into the field. Klaus sighed again before following, thinking it an incredibly bad idea. 

The field had a large trailer in the middle of it, fitted with a deck and an overhanging piece of fabric and a couple of knick-knacks. They all seemed like stereotypical things that had been seen in classic media and literature. There was a windmill somewhere, spinning gently in the wind and planted in front of the deck, standing tall. There was a small fenced off garden there as well, looking to be growing tomatoes and some type of spinach or grassy vegetable and even a lounge chair that looked well-lived in. 

Klaus still had his doubts, but there was little time for doubts at this point in time. They were right on the edge of the fence, and this was the final leap that had to come. Ben, in all his shitty, corporeal ghost glory, knocked on the door of the trailer without a second thought, stepping back afterwards. Klaus took a deep breath as the door opened, revealing a head peeking out of the door. 

“Hi, are you Zahrun Contos?” Ben asked, leaning forward slightly, one blue, silvery hand waving at him. “We need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo i know this is a little late, all things considered, but i am definitely where i need to be in the plot right now to make sure that everything i know will go as planned. im still mapping out the canon parts of the actual storyline with reginalds death and such, so ill be figuring out this plotline before continuing to the rest of the story
> 
> i really do hope ur liking whats going on because it makes me happy to think that anyones as enthusiastic as me about this!! i hope u like this chapter so far and that it doesnt disappoint <3 thank u so much for reading and i hope u await more from this story


	8. a/n! please read

so! i know ive left this work hanging for a while, mostly due to a lack of inspiration on my part, but i can safely say that after watching the new season i am a lot more inspired to get back into the fandom properly. that being said, i will most likely be rewriting this book since i think the pacing is a little to fast, or starting a new series altogether circling either five or klaus. thanks for reading this!!! i’ll most likely post the rewrite in a different book so keep an eye out for that too <3 


	9. rewrite posted!!!!

"I don't need a xanny (to feel better)"

ben and klaus, parents extraordinaire [take two] 

<https://archiveofourown.org/works/25780366/chapters/62614786>

enjoy! 

**Author's Note:**

> so! i know this fandom is a little out of left-field for me, considering my previous obsession with batman and such, but i decided to dip my toes in the pool that was the umbrella acaedemy after watching the tv show, so enjoy!


End file.
